An Acquiring Deal With BNP Paribas Helps Propel Cross-Border Traffic for PingPong Payments

The explosive growth in e-commerce has not been contained within national borders, which creates a market for processors capable of handling cross-border payments. PingPong Payments, a specialist in this market, early Friday announced an acquiring agreement with Europe’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, that the U.S.-based processor expects will reinforce its capabilities in managing payments for so-called direct-to-consumer sales by companies on that continent.

The latest agreement with BNP Paribas follows ties PingPong has established with the bank over the past five years to support payments, foreign exchange, and other functions. Now, with the formal acquiring agreement, “PingPong Payments will be integrated into the mainstream European financial system, providing greater access to a variety of local payment methods, and helping merchants with acquiring needs in the [European Union] to quickly expand to the local market,” said Aaron Xu, PingPong’s vice president and head of global institution group, in a statement.

But PingPong’s ambitions go beyond acquiring for cross-border payments in Europe. The company says it can also offer prepaid cards and digital wallets on the Continent following its receipt of a European EMI license. EMI refers to Electronic Money Institution. “We will soon release a one-stop digital-payment service worldwide, including the EU,” Xu says in a statement. “With these features, we will accelerate the globalization of [small businesses], creating greater opportunities for businesses to scale internationally and expand beyond borders.”

Merchants directly access PingPong’s platform or do so via an application programming interface, largely to pay suppliers but also to receive payments. The 7-year-old company processes card payments for the global brands but also online banking transfers. It says it now supports payments for more than 1 million merchants globally and has processed more than $90 billion in cross-border traffic since its founding.

The latest news follows an agreement PingPong announced last month that opens a corridor into China for global merchants seeking to buy from manufacturers in that country.